Another Story About a Ball
by Fleur the First
Summary: “Perhaps I wouldn’t have set your homework on fire if you hadn’t insinuated my only desire in life is to be a piece of eye candy hanging off your despicable arm.” LJ


**Another Story About a Ball**

**Author's Note:** Consider this little one-shot an apology for my recent disappearance. I'd tell you that I'd been kidnapped and stuck in the Sahara these past months with no access to a computer but seeing as how that's a total like I won't.

Also, the chapter fics? They're about as dead as dead can be.

In other news, I have decent size Ginny/Harry post-Hogwarts story in the works that I won't even consider posting until I have it finished. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later seeing as how book six is coming out _this summer_! Yay!

**Disclaimer:** This is so pointless. We all know I don't own Harry Potter.

Lily watched as her date to the ball made his way out of the Great Hall. Apparently the slimy git found Ellen Founders a more entertaining date than the one he had originally asked to the ball. After all, Lily hadn't gazed at him like he was some stud on a stick when she had danced with him, but had merely chatted about the most recent Charms exam. In other words, she had been ditched.

_Note to self_, Lily thought, _work on my smoldering gazes_.

"I didn't know you were going stag to this thing, Evans," a familiar voice said from behind the redhead. "I would have been more than happy to escort you if you hadn't turned me down…and set my homework on fire."

Lily smiled at the memory. At least she could count on one man's consistency. Even if what she meant was that he was consistent in his ability to make her feel complete and total abhorrence toward him.

"Perhaps I wouldn't have set your homework on fire if you hadn't insinuated my only desire in life is to be a piece of eye candy hanging off your despicable arm."

James, much to Lily's chagrin, only laughed at her as he took a step closer. "Can't you take a joke? Honestly, not everything has to be so serious."

"Not everything has to be a joke, either," Lily said, pointedly staring out at their dancing peers rather than sparing a glance at James.

"I never said it was," he said in a voice that made Lily shiver. Of course, she blamed the goose bumps lining her arms on a breeze rather than the sultry tone of voice James had just spoken with.

Sultry?

She meant unpleasant.

Unpleasant in a way that made her quite possibly want to…

_Stop it!_ Lily admonished herself. _Remember, you hate James...I mean Potter. That means you do not want to see what he's wearing or if his hair is sticking up in an incredibly ridiculous manner that is just begging to be patted down._

"Go away, Potter," Lily managed to say after she was done with her mental lecture.

"Not until you tell me why you're standing here by yourself instead of dancing."

Lily turned to look at James for the first time since he had spoken to her. "With you, you mean?"

"With anybody," James said.

"If you must know," Lily replied, one again staring out at the dance floor, "my date seems to have disappeared."

Why was she talking about this with James Potter? He would just say something about how she should have come with him and how he was the only boy who would ever be able to put up with her.

When James didn't say anything Lily looked at him again. Damn, that made twice. She'd have to work on her resolve as well as her smoldering gazes. However, instead of the smug grin she expected to see on her rival's face there was something quite akin to sympathy.

It was worse than the anticipated smugness.

"I told him he could," Lily lied, hating the fact that she was now babbling. "We weren't getting along. I didn't want him to be tied down to me all night."

"Why not?" James asked.

Lily had it on the tip of her tongue to tell James to bugger off. Yet, something that she couldn't quite identify made her want to keep talking to him. She wanted him to continue on acting like a caring, considerate, handsome boy who was making her heart beat much faster than it usually did.

The bottom of Lily's stomach dropped out as she realized that she had asbo-bloody-lutely flipped her lid.

She liked James Potter.

Maybe even _liked_ him.

"Evans?" James asked again.

Lily shook herself out of her reverie. "I, um, can't dance. He can. He's an amazing dancer. I told him to go dance with somebody whose ability matched his own."

"That was nice of you," James said. "Something quite like that occurred with me and Ellen."

"Ellen is your date?" Lily asked.

"She was," corrected James. "Of course, she seems to have found someone more to her liking to, er…dance with."

Lily's cheeks were bright red, she knew. James knew exactly what the situation with her date was and she'd made a fool of herself in front of him by lying about it. Now she'd never hear the end of it.

"Well, Evans, I guess this can only mean one thing," James said.

"What are you getting at, Potter?" Lily said warily. She trusted James about as far as she could throw him.

The dark-haired boy made a sweeping gesture and smiled at her again. "Can I have this dance?"

"I already told you I'm awful," Lily said, praying to God her voice didn't sound as high-pitched as she thought it did. He was supposed to be teasing her, not charming her for Merlin's sake!

"I don't care," James said. He took her hand and looked at her closely, daring her to take it back.

"One dance," she told him, smoothing out her green dress robes with her free hand. She still hadn't reclaimed the one James had taken hold of. "I can't stand any more than that since I'm allergic to you and all."

James laughed (it was a very nice laugh, Lily conceded). "People grow out of allergies, you know. I myself have recently discovered that eating strawberries won't kill me as it was previously suspected. I'm sure you're happy to hear it."

"Shut it, Potter and let's get this over with," Lily told him. What she didn't tell him, however, was that she was secretly hoping the band's next song would be the longest of the night.

The End


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